Rakugo in the time of COVID-19: how the pandemic changed Tokyo’s traditional storytelling art

This article, based on one year of ethnography in Tokyo in 2020–2021, presents the impact of COVID-19 on the world of rakugo (a traditional Japanese art of comic oral storytelling), and on my experience researching it. As the global pandemic recedes into history, researchers are still reckoning with its effects on different populations. In Japan, anthropologists focused on how COVID-19 exposed vulnerability and resilience in the communities they studied. This article contributes to this emerging literature through the case of rakugo, arguing that the pandemic forced (and, at times, allowed) members of the rakugo community to modify long-held practices and taboos. One change in particular – the digitalization of rakugo – created novel opportunities for performance and research. However, as online shows granted anonymity to audiences, rakugo performers exercised a higher degree of self-censorship, so only by accessing the field in person, as a support staff at grassroots venues working to prevent the spread of the virus, was I able to observe the forms of quiet subversion taking place in Tokyo beyond the online, rule-abiding shows. Methodologically, therefore, this article advocates combining online and in-person ethnographic research.